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Shopping and the construction of femininity in the Woodward's department store, Vancouver, 1945 to 1960

University of British Columbia

This thesis draws together and reformulates two literatures in order to provide a fresh perspective on the ways that commodities are important in the construction of femininity. On the one hand, studies within retail history and geography, with few exceptions, ignore the salience of shopping as a cultural practice and retail institutions as contexts where the contours of shopping and the imbrication of commodities with everyday life are shaped. On the other hand, scholarship in feminism and cultural studies has persuasively documented the percolation of commodities throughout society, social relations and femininity, but have effectively ignored one of the sites where commodities and consumption practices become intertwined with femininity: retailing. This latter literature is critiqued on the basis that: retailing is ignored through an inadequate conceptualization of consumption; the subject and femininity are insufficiently theorized; and the importance of place in both of these ignored. An alternative framework is offered, drawing on poststructuralist insights, which facilitates an understanding of the location of retailing in relation to consumption, the importance of place in retailing and the ways that retailing is potentially part of the construction of femininity. In particular, retailing is shown to be involved in the construction of femininity through control over the activity of shopping and shoppers, and attempts to fix the meanings of commodities. These discussions of the construction of femininity through shopping in the context of retailing are grounded through a case study of the Woodward's department store in downtown Vancouver between 1945 and 1960. The case study demonstrates the role of retailing in the construction of femininity, and in particular highlights the importance of place in such constructions. The retailing discourses permeating Woodward's were simultaneously place-making discourses, and the characteristics of the place created pervaded the meanings of the commodities and the activity of shopping. The time and place of the case study also throws into sharp relief the operation of two discourses that have been identified as important in the construction of femininity: modernity and familialism. The analysis developed here shows how they intertwine to produce the femininity of shopping. In particular, the feminine shopper is shown as the outcome of a relation, constituted by power and knowledge, between the salesclerk and the shopper, such that shoppers are positioned as inferior and feminine. In so doing, the maligning of both femininity and shopping is demonstrated.

Text

2011-01-06

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/30541

Geography

University of British Columbia

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